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Dolby Headphone On The Go

It's an amazing thing to experience true 5.1 digital surround sound when wearing a simple pair of stereo headphones. In fact, it shouldn't even be possible. But if there's one company who knows a thing or two about audio wizardry, it's the folks at Dolby. At this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, I took a little time out to stop by Dolby's rather swank booth to check out its Dolby Headphone technology. Put simply, the user can experience perfect 5.1 digital surround sound while using any regular stereo headphones. Don't believe me? Well, check out the demo for yourself right here. Pretty cool, eh?

Although the technology has been in the public eye for some time now, the underlying focus of my meeting with Dolby was the potential application of Dolby Headphone for next-generation portable electronic devices -- specifically, gaming devices. While Dolby was keeping tight-lipped about naming specific products and brands, the theory is that pretty much any portable device with audio capabilities should be able to run the amazing 5.1 headphone algorithm -- whether in hardware or software form. At the booth, I was given a demonstration of Dolby Headphone which was using a special signal decoder to process the audio signal.

The demo showed a couple of popular Xbox games, kicking off with the regular stereo feed. After a few seconds, the feed flipped over to the Dolby Headphone algorithm and the difference was pretty incredible. It's key to note that any stereo headphones can be used. First up was the beach landing sequence from Medal of Honor: Frontline which wowed me with its bullets zipping from the front spatial field to the rear with deadly accuracy. Next, a Spitfire plane flew overhead and the roar of the engine shifted from right to left just as it would if you were sitting in the theatre or watching a movie on your own home theatre system.

Dolby Headphone -- 5.1 on the go

The most impressive game demoed had to be Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden which gracefully showed off the horse boss battle from the early portion of the game. The galloping hooves and weapon swings really hammered home the illusion that the character was running circles around the player. Stellar stuff for sure.

While Dolby wasn't giving much away in terms of how the algorithm works, it's fair to say that future applications for Dolby Headphone in terms of portable gaming devices is very bright indeed. Currently, if you spend a large amount of money on a nice high-end surround sound receiver, there's a good chance that it'll sport the Dolby Headphone logo and tech inside. Moving forward, the applications for 5.1 through regular headphones could be applied to just about any device that outputs digital audio. iPod, cellular phone, portable DVD, future iterations of the PSP and NDS are all prime candidates for making the important and sensory-enhancing lead from stereo to 5.1.

Voodoo black magic? Maybe, but Dolby is the man to know when it comes to audio, so it's with much anticipation that we can all await further official announcements regarding Dolby Headphone and its huge potential for the mobile gamer.